Q&A with Kawasaki’s
Marketing Director, Bruce Stjernstrom
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2008
Kawasaki Team Green KFX450R |
Irvine, CA (7/12/2007) - With the partnership
between Monster Energy and Kawasaki halfway through its’
first year, Kawasaki’s Marketing Director Bruce
Stjernstrom sat down to discuss how the relationship has
been going.
Q: The partnership with Monster Energy has
been in effect for over six months now. Can you describe
how it’s been going on the racing side from the
professional teams all the way to the amateurs?
Bruce Stjernstrom: The Monster
Energy Kawasaki relationship has been in the making
for over a year. Everyone agreed that it was a great
idea. The colors obviously work great for them and us
with the lime green and black. It was a matter sorting
out what we were going to do. Monster Energy wanted
to include all the racing teams and we wanted to do
that as well. It seems like we have been doing it a
lot longer than we have been but it just took awhile
for it to come together.
I think from both sides it is a good marriage.
The relationship is good. The product is good. I think
it works well for us and it works well for them too.
Q: So in terms of Monster Energy, have they
expressed how the relationship has been going so far?
B.S.: Well they have been working
with the Pro Circuit team for a couple of years. They
felt that motocross/supercross was a big part of their
marketing program. They were really positive about that
and felt strongly about how important that was for them.
The relationship with us started out of that. They were
interested, not only in our 450 team but with road racing,
off-road, drag racing, our new ATV team, and Team Green™
as well. Even though motocross was their first experience
with motorcycle racing, they were excited about expanding
that whole thing into the other venues.
Q: Do you think its boosting the appeal for
both Kawasaki and Monster Energy?
B.S.: Well, I can answer for Kawasaki.
I know that there are a lot of people that are aware
of Monster Energy and have been attracted to our team
because of it. Within the industry, I think people look
at Monster Energy as a real viable product and a company
that is a good fit for our industry. Obviously there
have been other energy drinks that have been involved
with our industry but Monster Energy has been a big
player in our industry and their industry too. I think
Kawasaki’s racing program is something that gives
them a really strong anchor in our industry. It’s
a great mix because our audience is skewed young and
theirs is skewed young as well.
Q: Some manufactures don’t have title
sponsors and Kawasaki has decided to share its name.
Why do you think that some people don’t decide
to share their name?
B.S.: A few years ago we had a
similar relationship with Chevy Trucks. And obviously
General Motors is a big company. We had a great relationship
with them. Also, it gave us a lot of experience in how
to work with a title sponsor and know how to make it
successful for both sides. We had a five year relationship
with GM, which was pretty good. Coming into this relationship,
I think it helped us determine how we wanted this relationship
to work and how we thought it would help them.
It’s important to understand that we not
only work for Kawasaki but we work for Monster Energy
too. It’s an important part of our racing teams.
Monster Energy is putting a lot into our teams, not
just financially but also with commitment to promotions
and marketing. I think it’s been good as far as
helping generate a lot of awareness for our racing teams
and our company. The value of having Monster Energy
as our title sponsor has really been their commitment
to us. That’s what we were looking for in a partnership
when we put this whole thing together.
Q: Is there anything new that will be happening
with the group?
B.S.: When we began working on
this relationship, there were some things that seemed
to happen last minute. Now that we have had some time
to work together, we are just going to streamline how
we are going to do things, prioritize the efforts we
put into it and get the best value for our joint efforts.
That’s our main goal for next year.
As one of the premier ATV racing series, the WPSA
consists of ten races that are run between from April
and September. GNCC, the largest off-road racing series
in America, kicks-off the season March 3-6 and ends
the 13 round series in Crawfordsville, Ind. October
27-28, 2007.
Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (KMC)
markets and distributes Kawasaki motorcycles, ATVs,
personal watercraft and utility vehicles through a network
of more than 1,500 independent retailers, with an additional
7,700 retailers specializing in power products and general
purpose engines. KMC and its affiliates employ nearly
2,400 people in the United States, with 400 of them
located at the Irvine, California headquarters.
Kawasaki’s tagline, “Let
the good times roll.™”, is recognized worldwide
and the brand has become synonymous with powerful, stylish
motorcycles for over four decades. Information about
Kawasaki’s complete line of recreational products
and Kawasaki affiliates can be found on the Internet
at www.kawasaki.com.
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